April 17, 2018

Dear Department of Teacher Education,

Insert an introduction to let the audience know who I am and why I have this opinion. As a
future educator seeking a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education, I am concerned about
the limited amount of Special Education courses that are in the Elementary Education curriculum. List
the current SPE courses available: “Currently, SPE504 is the only Special Education course in our
curriculum.” After consulting many students in the Teacher Education Program and many teachers that
previously graduated from the Central Michigan University Teacher Education Program, this concern
that I have is wide-spread. Many teachers have mentioned that they do not feel prepared to teach
students with special needs when they get into their own classroom. A second-grade teacher that
graduated from the Central Michigan University Teacher Education Program recently told me that “she
still does not feel prepared to reach all of the diverse education needs she sees in her classroom.” With
this being said, future elementary teachers should have more special education course requirements
before graduating with an Elementary Education degree.
The first reason you should implement more Special Education course into the Elementary
Education curriculum is because there are many diverse needs in schools and one class cannot teach
them all. In Pullen Elementary School alone, one of the elementary schools in Mt. Pleasant where
many CMU Teacher Education students visit, there are over ten different disorders that students are
diagnosed with. List some of the disorders that are common in elementary students: “Some of these
disorders may include attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),
autism, anxiety, oppositional defiant disorder, depression, learning disorders, cognitive impairment,
emotional impairment, and many more”. While these disorders are touched on in SPE504, they cannot
be fully developed and understood by future educators in one 16-week course. Personally, it took me
almost one year to fully understand how to best help a student on the autism spectrum. Therefore,
students in the teacher education program cannot possible learn everything that they need to learn
about working with students that have special needs with one course.
Another reason future elementary school teachers need more Special Education courses in
their curriculum is because of the prevalence of special education students in general education
classrooms. Now more than ever, schools are trying to place special education students in general
education classrooms. This means that we as students in the Elementary Teacher Education Program
will most-likely have special education students in our classrooms either full-time or part-time. During
my time volunteering in a second-grade classroom at Pullen Elementary School a student on the autism
spectrum was placed full-time in a general education classroom. The teacher that taught this class was
a CMU Elementary Teacher Education graduate and only was required to take SPE504, like we are
currently. When she found out a special education student was going to be placed in her classroom
full-time she was very nervous. She did not feel prepared to teacher a student with having only taken
on one special education course at CMU. With this trend of placing more special education students in
general education classrooms, I think it is important imperative that future teachers learn more about
how to best help these students by incorporating more Special Education courses into the Elementary
Education curriculum.
 Outside of teaching educators how to teach students with special needs, special education
courses also teach future teachers how to differentiate to better reach the needs of all of their
students. While this is very important in special education, it is also important to be able to reach all of
your students in a general education classroom too. As a student that has spent over three years in
elementary classrooms, it is very apparent that every student has different needs and abilities. Because
every student has different abilities it is important for teachers to be able to adapt their assignments,
curriculum, and activities so each student is able to learn and succeed in the classroom. Therefore,
implementing more Special Education courses into the Elementary Education curriculum would not
only help prepare future teachers to teach special education students, but it would also help future
teachers prepare to teach the wide variety of students they will see in their general education
classrooms as well.
Finally, if students at CMU were to receive more training in Special Education courses we would
be able to integrate more special education students into our future general education classrooms. As I
have learned in previous classes, integrating special education students into general education
classrooms is very beneficial for both the special education students and the general education
students. Placing special education students in general education classrooms teaches those students
how to interact with general education students. It also gives those special education students role
models to look up to when they are looking for examples of how to act and behave. Placing special
education students in general education classrooms also teaches general education students important
skills such as how to work with people that may be different from them. It also gives general education
students the chance to learn about disabilities and disorders and for them to learn how to best help
people they may encounter in the future with similar needs.
As you can see, there are many reasons to incorporate more Special Education courses into the
Elementary Education Degree requirements. I really appreciate all of the time that you spent reading
my letter. Your consideration about this topic is greatly appreciated!

Sincerely,
Hanna Angst